why even bother saying anything?

My girlfriend and I were talking on the way in to work today about how there are just some people who don't like anything. Or rather, don't ADMIT to liking anything. It came about from me saying I was listening to Cobra Skulls and that I read a review of their new ep and how the dude just tore it apart (including the bad religion cover that he had no idea was a bad religion song) saying how it was not punk and how punk has fallen apart and he misses the old days and blah blah blah same shit everyone who is trying to sound cool says. This was a follow up conversation about a dude I saw on Friday who was very loudly bashing a game his friend and the guy at GameStop were saying was lots of fun.

My lady has a theory on these people, the ones that absolutely have to tear down everything. They are insecure. These people are afraid of saying they like something that someone else thinks is terrible and having to either defend themselves or look like a fool. I think she is on to something. The Gamestop shopper was obviously one of those guys that plays EVERYTHING that comes out and spends a lot of time sitting in front of a game screen. Hygiene seemed to be secondary. The guy who wrote the article had in his little bio that he "barely graduated high school and liked to occasionally write about music" and let me tell you, trying to be funny and ironic about what you do for a living/lack of taking care of yourself is not a statement on how alternative to the norm you can be but is more a statement of "i'm trying to make it look like I don't care what you think of me, but I really want you to know how cool/smart/funny I can be, please notice me." It's the same thing that I have talked about with hipsters in the past.

Here's the thing. Instead of saying how "childish" or "asinine" something is and comparing it to your favorite old bands. Take a look at it as a stand-alone piece of work. If someone said to me, "Man, i thought that game sucked because the controls were shitty" or "that album sucked, the guitar player needs to stop showing off." those are definitive statements. But, if you say "that band sucks because they do not sound like this" that is basically saying that because something does not sound like your favorite, popular friend approved, band, then they automatically suck.

You see this a lot where someone states that they "only like the older stuff" which is usually code for, "this band is popular now, but i need to prove my coolness by showing how i liked them before they were popular and now that they are popular, they suck." Look at a band like Against Me! "Vivida Vis" sounds like it was recorded in the middle of a high school gym with tom not having access to a PA so he had to shout everything and destroy his vocals. Alkaline Trio is another great example, some of those early recordings sound rough. Whether that is because of the recording or the talent, the result is the same. Don't get me wrong, there is a LOT of overproduced music out there, that is not what i am saying, I am saying that these people are saying that something is good simply because it meets a certain condition that they know to be accepted as cool with whatever group they want to be associated with.

Now, I have heard and bought a ton of shitty music at the word of people I know and things i read. But, on the flip side, I have found a ton of great music from the same places. Here's the thing, just because it is different that what YOU personally like, does not mean it is bad. There is music that I bought 4 years ago that I barely want to listen to now. We all change. People who sit and talk shit about everything, even if they secretly like it, are missing out. There is a lot of things out there worth experiencing and if you dismiss it simply because it does not meet your prerequisite ideal, then your attempt at showing how great you are only highlights what a complete loser you are.

sadly, sometimes it goes this way

So, i have been thinking about my relative lack of posts lately. It is not that I do not care. Nor do I seem to be overly busy which makes it hard to post. No, it is none of these things. The real reason I have discovered is inspiration. The last few days have been a great example of what and why I have not been posting. Despite being sick all weekend, with nothing to do but lay on the couch and try to breathe without having to blow my nose or cough, I did not have much drive to do much of anything else. Sunday, I felt like looking up some music. I felt like I needed the jolt to my system that I get when something really gets its hooks into me. It adds a little pep to my step. over the last few weeks, the new music coming out has done nothing for me. I don't care for the vocals, or how it is mixed, or the subject of the songs. I dunno, things just have not been filling the gap and I am looking for.

Now, I love a lot of different kinds of music, from punk to rock to ambient stuff to more Americana things like blues, bluegrass, alt-country like Wilco or Lucero, rockabilly/pshychobilly. I really like a lot of things, just basically not into R&B, rap, or whatever that shit is that they play on the radio that is currently called "pop"

My typical way of finding something new, is to start with something old. I take a band I really like and go to their site, liner notes, record label, and even the "people who bought this also bought" page on amazon and itunes. I spent probably close to 3 hours looking around at things. I was in the mood for some older feeling music, like rockabilly/pshycobilly and straight up oldies things. I ended up buying the first recordings of Ritchie Valens. Yes, the guy who wrote "La Bamba" and "Oh, Donna" are you having fun with those in your head right now?

Anyway, there is an inherent problem with liking modern rockabilly and pshychobilly (which I lump together) and those problems are a matter of subject and the general "samey" feel they give off.

Here is a typical physchobilly song: "I see dead girls and they are sexy (thump thump thump bass)."

Rockabilly is the same with hot rods. I love both genres, but I can not listen to most of what they produce. Does that even make sense? I think it does.

Let me do a "for example" here. Tiger Army is great. The Reverend Horton Heat is great. All of the bands that are trying to sound like them do just that, they sound like them. There is nothing that makes any one band better than the other and at the end of the day, it all ends up being the same. And that is uninspiring.

I am running into the same issue with trying to find things like Lucero. Things are either too country-ish for me or they vocals are dumb sounding like it was sung into a mr. microphone first. Gaslight? same deal. No one can come close to the sound they have. Those that do, just do not grab me as much.

All of this has accumulated to me doing what I seem to be doing more and more lately. That is looking back and finding what inspired the bands I love today to see what they were inspired by. Hence, the Ritchie Valens. It all boils down to a lack of interesting new music. The Gaslight Anthem took Chamberlain on the road with them at the beginning of the summer. That is because the guys from Gaslight have a large respect for what Chamberlain created in the past. That experience opened up a lot of time for people who might have missed Chamberlain to realize what a great band they were. This is a good thing. This is what I want.

I fondly remember being 16 and 17 years old. Walking into Record Breakers and buying an album of a band I liked. Then as I bought it, I almost always got "hey, if you like these dudes, this band over here is something you might like." and more often than not, they were right.

I have resorted to lately even finding out what bands are playing together and trying to get live recordings of shows to find new music or different versions of things I already like. This makes me sad in a way. I want something to knock me off my feet with how good it is. I want those chills i got during the very first minutes of "Great Expectations" that lasted all the way until "The Backseat" on the Gaslight Anthem's second full length album "The '59 Sound." That is what is missing from 95% of the music I come across.

So, back to what I was doing on Sunday. NOTHING really grabbed ahold of my "rockabilly" mood that day. Sure, I found some cool things that did not sound like shit nor did they just talk about hot rod zombies, namely The Brains and some OLD music like Carl Perkins.

But I did not buy any music. I want to make sure I am not setting for something to get my fix, when I really do not have the money to even go out to eat. This need to find out and enjoy as much great music I can find has been slipping. It has been falling off. I have no doubt that this has to do with the relatively stale state music is in today. I have blogged over and over about a handful of bands and how they are great. But really, that's it. Sure, I happen to find an old album or something from a band I like. But really, there is a core group that never go away. It is time to keep looking back.

I sense a Carl Perkins purchase coming soon.